Chapter 12
“He’s got it!” Anita discreetly drew Lizzy into the suite with her and closed the door before speaking up again. “He’s got the briefcase with him. Mr. Santiago just came out of his suite with Gomez in tow, and they went downstairs. Mr. Santiago was carrying the briefcase.”
“That’s great,” Troy said. “This is a wonderful opportunity. We can sneak into his room right now.”
“What are you talking about?” Lizzy demanded. “Who said anything about sneaking into someone’s room?”
“I did,” Troy said. “It’s the easiest way to get that briefcase. You won’t let us kidnap him, so this is how it has to happen. Now, you two ladies, go follow Mr. Santiago. Hurry!”
“No, wait, I think we should go with them,” Kevin said. He didn’t like the idea of Anita following the man without him there. What if he spotted her? What if something happened to her?
“Fine, we’ll go as couples,” Lizzy said. “Troy and I can search Mr. Santiago’s room, and you two can follow him. You don’t want to kidnap or interrogate him anymore—fine. But maybe you can at least see where he goes. Might give us more information for Andrew.”
Anita rolled her eyes impatiently. “Fine, but let’s go! He’ll have vanished by the time we’re through arguing!”
Kevin got up, and they hurried out of the door and down the stairs. They ran down them, hoping not to lose their quarry.
“What if he gets into a buggy or something?” Anita asked.
“We’ll deal with that if it happens,” Kevin said. But trying to follow a buggy on foot would be almost impossible, he had to admit to himself.
They reached the ground floor and slowed. It wouldn’t do to go chasing through the reception like hooligans. That would certainly cause alarm.
Holding hands and trying their best to look like a couple going for an afternoon stroll, Kevin and Anita walked out of the inn and onto the street.
Kevin looked up the street and saw nothing. There was no one there.
“Ah, there they are,” Anita said.
The two men they were after were also on foot, turning the corner at the end of the street, heading into San Antonio.
Kevin and Anita took off, walking as quickly as they could without drawing attention to themselves. When they got to the corner, they turned it as casually as they could.
“Okay,” Kevin said to Anita, raising her hand to kiss it. “We’re just out to find a bite to eat, if anyone asks.”
“Is it lunchtime?” Anita asked, looking surprised. “Where did the day go?”
“That’s a good question,” Kevin said and chuckled. “It feels like we missed part of the day.”
They walked to the next corner and turned right, crossing the street. Mr. Santiago and Gomez walked down the street until they came to a square block of a building. It was red brick, and the name in the front window was that of an engineering company.
“What does he want with an engineering firm?” Kevin mused aloud.
“I don’t know,” Anita said. “I don’t think we can follow him in there, can we?”
“No,” Kevin said. “We have no business in there, and I’m pretty sure someone would notice us hanging around.”
He looked up and down the street and then spotted something across it. “Look,” he said. “There’s a little tearoom. Maybe we can get some lunch while we keep an eye on the building.”
“That sounds like a good idea,” Anita agreed.
They crossed the street and went into the little establishment. It was tiny, and most of the tables and chairs were outside on the sidewalk under a large awning. There were several patrons, many of whom were reading the local paper while they enjoyed their food.
They got the last open table outside the little store and soon were enjoying some lemonade and sandwiches as they watched the front door of the building across the street.
“What could they be doing in an engineering firm?” Anita asked, frowning. “It makes no sense for them to go in there. What could a man like him possibly gain from such a place?”
“It’s a mystery,” Kevin agreed.
“You know … I think I could get some information out of them,” Anita said, looking thoughtful.
“Out of who?” Kevin asked.
“The people in the firm,” Anita said. She rose from her seat, leaving her sandwich and drink partially finished, and she crossed the street before Kevin could protest.
She certainly had come into her own since moving to the town.
Kevin recalled the timid, shy young lady he had met at the train station.
Anita had been so nervous and quiet that she had hardly spoken to him those first few hours, and now, possibly urged on by the need to save their home, she had rushed across the street to speak to complete strangers.
He watched her open the door and disappear inside.
Kevin sipped his drink, nibbled at his sandwich, and waited. Five minutes went by, and Anita didn’t come out of the front door. Another five minutes and Kevin began to worry. What if something had happened to her? What if she was in trouble and the firm was a front for the bandits?
That thought made Kevin laugh. That was ridiculous.
Bandits didn’t have businesses that covered for their illegal activities.
That sounded more like something out of one of those adventure stories he’d stopped reading about—he vaguely remembered Mob characters having legal businesses that acted as fronts for their criminal activities.
But no, bandits were hooligans who rode around the area, causing nothing but misery and mayhem.
After another five minutes, Kevin was about to get up and go find Anita when the door opened and she stepped out.
A blond young man was holding the door for her. She smiled sweetly at him and waved. Then she crossed the street and came right over to Kevin. The man closed the door.
“Well, you were gone a long time,” Kevin said, breathing a sigh of relief.
Anita smiled. “My hands shook the whole time,” she admitted. “I was so scared of doing that, but you know what? It feels good. I did something, and I don’t know, but it might be helpful.”
“What happened?” Kevin asked.
“Well, I went in there and asked Alex—the man who held the door for me—what they did,” Anita said.
“I said I was new in town and a terribly curious person. He was more than happy to tell me all about the firm. They mostly work with mines and building developments, factories and the like. But they also do water projects and town planning and a whole lot of other things.”
She sipped her lemonade, and Kevin saw that she was still shaking a little. He took one of her hands in his and held it tight.
“Do you think maybe they’re really looking to take over the mine?” Anita asked.
“It would take more than an engineer,” Kevin said. “They would need geologists, miners, a manager, a foreman, logistics. It’s a whole big thing. It’s not just digging a hole and hoping for the best. Believe me, I’ve been up to my neck in it for years.”
“But you fellows have already done a lot of that preparation work, haven’t you?” she asked. “So, then, wouldn’t it be easier, and they would need fewer people and things? Maybe they could get by with just an engineer?”
Kevin’s blood ran cold. “Oh heavens,” he said. “That’s really bad news.” The food and drink turned to ash in his mouth.
“Kevin?” Anita asked, looking concerned. “Are you all right?”
He shrugged. He didn’t know what to say. His hopes and dreams were teetering on the edge of a figurative ledge. To think that El Aguila might be planning to take over their mine, which they had worked so hard for, made his heart sore and his blood boil. Well, they wouldn’t go down without a fight!
“We need to get back and tell Lizzy and Troy,” he said.
“Not yet,” Anita said. “What if they go somewhere else?”
As she spoke, the door opened, and Mr. Santiago and Gomez came out of the building.
For a moment, they stood on the sidewalk and looked undecided about where they should go.
It seemed, from the way that Mr. Santiago was moving, that he wanted to head back to the inn, but apparently Gomez had something else in mind.
From across the street, Kevin had no idea what Gomez said to Mr. Santiago, but it clearly upset the man, and he seemed to reluctantly agree to Gomez’s suggestion. They set off down the street in the opposite direction to the inn.
“We should follow them,” Anita said.
“Yes,” Kevin said. He waved the waiter over and quickly handed him the money for the check and a tip. Then they left.
Soon they were heading in a direction not dissimilar to the one they had taken to get to the cattle market.
This side of town was full of budding factories and warehouses.
Kevin hadn’t spent any time here. The streets were dirty, and the buildings ugly and utilitarian.
The people who walked these streets were all men, and they wore work clothes, hats, and scuffed, dirty boots.
Only two people stood out on these streets—Mr. Santiago and Anita.
Especially Anita, since she was the only woman there.
A burly man with a bald head came out of one of the factories and looked them up and down. “You two have to be lost,” he said in a deep voice. “Where were you wanting to go?”
Kevin froze for a heartbeat. This man was a head and shoulders taller than he was, not to mention looking like he could easily lift a full-grown steer with his pinky finger if he so chose.
If he said the wrong thing, it could turn nasty.
“We were looking for the cattle market,” Kevin said, thinking quickly.
“Oh, you turned too soon,” the man said.
Kevin looked down the street as though trying to see where he’d gone wrong. In the time that they had taken their eyes off Mr. Santiago, he and Gomez had disappeared into one of the buildings down a side street. They had vanished from view.
“You should have carried on straight,” the big man said. He smiled in a friendly manner.
“Thank you,” Anita said with a smile of her own. “It’s so easy to get turned around when you come from a farm.”
“I’ll bet,” the big man said with a nod. “So, go back up the street and then turn right. Go straight, and after another two blocks, turn to your left. You can’t miss the cattle market after that; the smell will guide you.”
Kevin chuckled at the joke, and he and Anita turned around and walked back up the street. To his annoyance, the big man watched them go.
“Well, that didn’t go as planned,” Kevin said, annoyed.
“I know,” Anita said, waving cheerfully to the bald man and pretending to point to make sure they were going the right way. He nodded vigorously and waved them on. “He’s still standing there. Do you think he’s some sort of security?”
Kevin shrugged. “He’s certainly acting like it.”
“I know, but now we have to go to the cattle market,” she said. “I don’t want to go though. I want to go back to Troy and Lizzy and see if they managed to get into Mr. Santiago’s room.”
“That would be good,” Kevin said. “Maybe if we cross the street and head back on that side, then that bald man won’t see us.”
“That’s a great idea,” Anita said.
They walked a little farther down that block and then crossed to the other side of the street and headed back the way they had come.
They walked quickly past the street where Mr. Santiago and his black-clad companion had disappeared and headed back to the inn.
By the time they got there, they were tired, and Kevin was more than a little annoyed.
To make matters worse, they found Troy and Lizzy in the pub enjoying a glass of wine.
“Come and sit,” Troy said expansively. “They have great wine here.”
“All the way from California,” Charles Sparks said. He was behind the bar as he had been the last time they had visited. “Welcome back, folks!”
“How was your walk?” Lizzy asked, waggling her eyebrows.
Anita sank down into a chair. “It was fine. We got lost, though, and ended up in a not-so-nice part of town. But a kind gentleman with really big muscles and a bald head pointed us in the right direction.”
“That is lucky,” Charles said as he brought them each a glass of red wine.
“Some folks have been waylaid by thieves in the wrong parts of town. It’s not a good idea to go wandering around.
San Antonio is growing, and with that comes a bit of trouble along with the good stuff. ” He thumped Kevin in the shoulder.
Kevin nodded. “We sure know that.”
“Oh? What does that mean?” Charles asked. “Have you had a run-in with the bandits in this part of the world?”
“Yeah, you could say we’ve had more than our fair share of bandit trouble,” Troy said with a chuckle.
Charles nodded. “That’s right, you folks are from that new copper mine.”
“What makes you say that?” Kevin asked as he took a sip of the wine.
“Lucky guess,” Charles said. “Or your wife told my wife last time …” he shrugged. “It’s not a secret, is it?” He chuckled and left them to tend to some other customers.
“So?” Anita asked, leaning forward and speaking softly. “Did you get into the room?”
Lizzy grinned. “Oh yes,” she said. “And we know what they’re up to. At least we think we have an idea. We found one part of their plans. We didn’t study it yet. We thought it would be best to have us all together to do that.”
“Where are the plans?” Anita asked.
“Upstairs in our own room,” Lizzy said. “Let’s finish our wine, and then we can go up and take a look. It will seem suspicious if we just get up and leave.”
While they drank their wine, Anita told the story of their blunder through town. She didn’t tell them about the engineering firm other than to say she went in and asked a few questions. When their glasses were empty, they headed upstairs to Troy and Lizzy’s room.
Lizzy had hidden the documents they had taken from Mr. Santiago’s room behind a painting against the wall in their parlor. She pulled them out and spread them over the coffee table. They all leaned in to take a look.
Kevin was no engineer, but as he looked at the plans, he frowned. “This isn’t the mine.”
“It’s a plan to divert water from a river to flow to some other area,” Lizzy said. “See there how they change the river’s course?” She pointed to some lines on the plan. “Although this looks like it’s not even letting a little water flow in the original direction. It’s a complete adjustment.”
“Do we know where this is?” Anita asked.
Troy and Lizzy shook their heads.
Anita was silent. She had a strange look on her face. “Hold on. What did you say that Stevens said Gomez said to him? Something about being able to snuff the town out with the wave of his hand.”
“That was it,” Kevin said, frowning. “What about it?”
“Well, if this is our creek, the one that feeds the mine and the town,” she said and bit her lip, “if they divert all of our water … We won’t survive long.”
The silence that fell in the room was as heavy and dark as what you’d find in any mine.